8.0 yam'Tcha [sic], 4, rue Sauval in the 1st, 01 40 26 08 07, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, has a lunch menu at 30 €, tasting menu 65 and dinner 45 €. There are no choices but you are asked if you have any food issues.
They asked if we wanted to start with the house aperitif, which is 9 €, but I only learned that on scoping the wine list; instead I chose a Bordeaux at 25 € and my charming partner shared one glass and then did the tea pairings pleading jet-lag – 12 € for 3, which are delivered with a mini-lecture by Chiwah Chan, the husband of the chef – one Adeline Grattard who worked at the Aleno-era Scribe + l’Astrance under Barbot.
I’d asked several friends/critics/etc if this was Asian or fusion or world food and been told it was Asian-inspired and it is. They brought a “welcome” tea – oolong – most welcome.
The amuse bouche was/were microtomed Japanese radishes much like one is served in ryokans before dinner. Delicious, light and almost ethereal.
The first course was cold asparagus (that had been cooked and marinated, I suspect, in a very dilute rice wine), again delicious, light and almost ethereal, with a small but most adequate piece of sauteed foie gras, you’ve got it – d…, l… and e…. How foie gras can be so light I have no idea.
The main was a large piece of mackerel, most unfishy, atop cabbage and an emulsion of capsaicin, of the very light type: d, l and e.
Afterwards, I chose the cheese, a mixture of mixed gorgonzola and mascarpone with olive oil and she had strawberries and ginger ice cream with a ginger tuile. The coffee produced another sticker shock – 4 €.
However, with two menus, 1 bottle of wine, 4 teas and no coffee or bottled water, our bill was still only 97 €.
Can’t you find fault here? Yes, it’s very polished and perhaps too flawless and given the fixed menu(s), it would probably better to do what Spring does, insist that everyone come at a set time and serve dishes promptly, instead of clearly causing customers to wait between courses until the laggards catch up.
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